


Roses

by cassacain



Category: Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics), Titans (TV 2018)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Other, Platonic Relationships, Sibling Bonding, Trans Character, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:21:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24027310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassacain/pseuds/cassacain
Summary: Jericho's never met his younger half-sister, Rose, but he's determined to build a relationship with her regardless. So, he asks to meet up with her for coffee and conversation.
Relationships: Jericho Wilson & Rose Wilson, Joseph Wilson & Rose Wilson, Joseph Wilson & Rose Wilson & Slade Wilson, Joseph Wilson & Slade Wilson, Rose Wilson & Slade Wilson
Comments: 1
Kudos: 30





	Roses

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! I just watched Seasons 1 & 2 of Titans, and I am obsessed, particularly with their take on Jericho. Since Jericho's actor, Chella Man, is a trans man I got the idea to headcanon Jericho as a trans man as well. I'm hoping to see some interaction between Jericho and Rose as the show progresses, because I think they would get along well, though the fight against Slade wasn't enough to really tell. Anyway, happy reading!

Jericho Wilson was worried about his little sister, Rose. Not because he didn’t trust Dick Grayson and the rest of the Titans to protect her, but because he feared that she didn’t fully understand what their father was capable of doing to his own kids if they defied him.

That was his main reason for asking her to meet him. She was quite a bit younger than him, which was weird, but far from the strangest thing about her. She entered the coffee shop and the first thing he noticed was a blaze of long, curly white hair that stretched to her back and, when she turned her head, a big black eye patch in place over her right eye. Her left eye blazed blue, just like their father’s.

_Take a seat_ , Jericho signed quickly, with a polite smile. Rose lifted a brow and walked over to his table cautiously. She took the seat across from him slowly.

“I forgot you can’t talk,” Rose said. Then she cringed. “Is that rude to say? I don’t mean it that way.”

_Not rude,_ Jericho signed quickly. Rose nibbled at her lip.

“Not to be a total asshat, but I don’t know sign language that well. I’ve been trying to learn it since I learned you can’t speak verbally, but…I just haven’t made as much progress as I should have.”

Jericho nodded and pulled his phone out. He texted Rose: _Why don’t we just text instead?_

Rose replied: _This works. Thanks for getting me coffee._

  
Jericho ordered something for each of them, so it would be ready when she got here and he could make sure he paid for hers. Rose’s coffee he got based off of what Dick Grayson told him she liked. She took a sip and said, “Nice,” appreciatively, sharply.

Jericho took a deep breath. He’d been thinking out what he wanted to say to Rose, and there were two things. The first was a warning about what happened to him and Grant because of Slade, but the second was just getting to know her. What to do first?

After the pause, he texted her: _I want to get to know you, since you’re my little sister._

She replied quickly: _Half-sister, I guess._

_It’s the same to me_ , Jericho texted, before saying, _I want to tell you how I lost my voice._

“Didn’t you lose your voice because someone wanted to get back at our dad, Slade, so they took you hostage and when he didn’t do what they wanted they…” she trailed off, and made a motion across her neck that prompted Jericho to touch his old scars. He still remembered the uncertainty and the fear, all bunched up together, and then the worst happened; his captor slit his throat.

Jericho shuddered, then texted her quickly: _It wasn’t his fault, but it happened as a result of his actions. Just like the injuries Grant suffered_.

Rose let out a sigh. “I heard about that too. All of it. Slade told me it back when he was training me, before he…”

_Before he asked you to infiltrate the Titans?_ Jericho finished.

Rose nodded. “Yeah, before that. And, I mean, I’ve told a few people this so I should tell you too…Slade is the reason I don’t have this eye anymore.”

Jericho stared at her as she tapped the eye patch. Then he texted: _What happened?_

“Well, he wanted me to infiltrate the Titans and report to him what they were doing. So, he orchestrated a fight between me and him. We discussed it beforehand, but he planned to injure my eye enough that I lost it, thinking that would be enough to convince the Titans that I wasn’t actually loyal to him.”

That’s twisted, Jericho thought right away, but then he rethought it. Slade could easily convince a person to do messed up things; that was his nature. And Jericho didn’t want to only talk about their shared awful father with Rose, he wanted to get to know her as a person.

He texted her: _It sounds like Slade took advantage of your trust in him. I’m sorry that happened to you._

He looked up to check her reaction. She wore a sad smile. “You’re the first person to tell me you’re sorry that happened to me. All of the Titans…shit, I mean Jason—well, I should probably call him Robin—but, anyway, Jason went off on me. He said he couldn’t trust me anymore.” Her shoulders sank at the weight of that memory.

Jericho cringed. _Jason tends to go hard on people, don’t let that aspect of him get to you._ He sent the text to Rose. In the few times he’d met Jason, he noticed that he had a fiery temper and made his opinions very well-known. That, and he was sensitive; Rose’s betrayal likely cut deep. 

“I’ll try not to,” Rose said, pausing for a moment. She looked around the coffee shop before meeting Jericho’s eyes again. “I want to know more about you and Grant, but I don’t know where to begin, what to even ask. Or what to share about myself. It feels like there’s just so much we’ve missed about each other.”

Jericho understood that completely, he was having the same problem. What was too much to share on their first meeting, and what would she even care to know? He wasn’t entirely sure yet, but he did know that he wanted to have a relationship with his sister. So, he texted: _I don’t know how to do this either, but the good thing is that there isn’t a wrong way to learn about someone else. We could play a game of questions?_

“A game of questions? What does that mean?” Rose asked as she finished reading the text.

_We can ask each other about important things we’re curious about in the other’s life. Of course, we should make it more like a conversation, and take turns asking questions. Do you want me to go first?_

Rose grinned at that text. “Sure, you can go first, but I’m counting that as your first question.” Her sassiness reminded Jericho of Grant, and he couldn’t help but smile back at her. “Alright, so I guess what I want to know is what it was like actually growing up with Slade at home? Slade wasn’t close to my mom, but I’m pretty sure he was in your house when you were a kid, right?”

Oh, gosh. That was a loaded question for Jericho, with so much information he would need to share in order for her to make sense of his childhood. He wasn’t sure he was ready to share it, but, then again, she was his sister. Meeting up with her and building a relationship with her meant taking risks.

He hesitated before texting back: _Like most things, it was complicated. Slade can be an attentive father, and sometimes he brought Grant and I gifts, played games with us, took us to fun places like amusement parks. But as we got older he gradually stopped doing that and got harder on us. He definitely believed in using the belt. Sometimes, the way he treated us bordered on abuse. That caused fights between our mom and him, so sometimes we went to bed hearing them yell._

Jericho took a deep breath. There was more to his childhood than that. He looked up to see Rose reading the first text, and then quickly typed out the second one:

_Another complication, which I’m not sure if you know or not, is that I’m transgender. Because Slade was away a lot, I don’t think he saw my dysphoria the way mom and Grant did, so when I came out and started to transition he was initially confused. He had a lot of questions, which I understand, but it was exhausting for me since I was still pretty young and dealing with dysphoria on top of everything else. That, and my relationship with him could be rocky, as I mentioned before. But, he did end up being supportive of my transition, and he was there for me through a lot of it._

Slade’s supportiveness of Jericho’s transition was one of the things that kept him from completely cutting ties with Slade. For all of the garbage things Slade did to him throughout his childhood, Jericho wouldn’t forget Slade financing his hormones, surgeries, and even helping with his name change. Slade listened to him as he tried to decide on a different name, and, when asked, eventually suggested the name Jericho because it was the name of one of his close friends from the army, who died in combat. Apparently, it was what Slade initially planned to name Jericho if he turned out to be a boy at birth. This mean that Jericho’s choice to take the name now bonded him and Slade.

Jericho’s mom, Adeline, didn’t have the patience to pick names for her kids. Jericho hadn’t known that until he transitioned and began looking for a name he identified with. When he asked her, she fumbled to think of a name for him. It turned out that Slade picked both Grant’s name and Jericho’s dead name when they were born, and, after that, he helped pick Jericho’s chosen name too. Jericho wondered if Slade picked Rose’s name as well, but he decided to save that question for another time. He’d given Rose a lot to process already.

Now, Jericho watched Rose closely and nervously. He’d just poured out an important piece of himself to her, and he wasn’t entirely sure how she would respond. Jericho passed easily as a man and was so comfortable in his identity that he didn’t think of himself as any different from a cis man, but he knew some people took different perspectives and some even saw transgender people as lesser. He hoped to God Rose wasn’t one of them.

Rose read the text quickly at first, but then went back and reread part of it. “Holy shit, when you say abuse do you mean that Slade hit you guys as kids?” She seemed stuck on that. Jericho went to sign his answer, remembered Rose couldn’t understand that, and picked up his phone to text instead.

_He hit Grant more than he did me. Back then, I presented as a girl, so Grant tended to get the worst of it._

Might as well be honest, he thought. Slade was easier on Jericho because he didn’t like the thought of picking on a girl.

“What? That’s seriously screwed up, to hit a kid is wrong enough but to hit one more than the other based on something like that…” Rose shook her head. “I don’t know why I tried so hard to get his approval, he’s a freaking monster. I guess I really was just that desperate to have a dad.” Her eye glassed over, but then a new thought occurred to her and she sat straight up. “Shit, I just realized I didn’t respond to part of your message. Um, this is probably gonna sound weird because I don’t know how to say it right, but I totally support you, just so you know. No matter what.” She smiled, and even though it was a bit awkward Jericho grinned in return. He appreciated Rose’s support. It seemed clear to him that she was desperate to have a family, which increased his determination to be close with her.

_My turn to ask a question. Do you plan to stick with the Teen Titans?_ Jericho typed out the message and sent it. This question was of particular importance because he worried about his little sister’s safety, as well as her chances of pissing off Slade.

Rose shrugged. “Kind of. Not sure yet, honestly. I don’t really have anywhere I fit in outside of there, and I like the people and the lifestyle. The whole reason I moved in with Slade was because he offered to train me to be an assassin, and I wanted that. I love the adrenaline.”

Jericho nodded. _I can respect that. I just want to know, because if you ever want to leave that lifestyle behind, I can help you move on._ That was the truth. If she wanted to be a Titan, fine, he had friends who did the superhero business and survived it okay. But if she wanted to get out of it, he would help her get on her feet, give her a place to stay, everything.

Rose beamed at him. “Thanks, Jericho. Honestly, I feel like I can trust you,” she paused, tilting her head, and her smile fell. “Don’t disappoint me, please.” It sounded a little like begging.

Jericho wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he just texted: _I’ll try not to. Your turn for a question?_

“Oh, right. I kinda forgot. Um…shoot, how is it that there’s so much I want to know, yet I can’t think of anything? What kind of bullshit is that?” Rose asked, and Jericho grinned. He would have laughed if he could, but the scarring from his old injury kept him from doing even that. Rose tried to think for a minute longer before groaning. “Ugh, I’ll just ask you something stupid, then. Are you seeing anyone?”

Jericho paused. Over text, he said, _Nope. Feel free to send any cute guys or girls my way_. _Now, what about you_?

Rose laughed. “I should have seen that question coming. I guess Jason and I sorta had a thing, but it’s over now. So, no, I think.” She frowned.

Jericho sent her, teasingly: _You should get that straightened out._

“Oh, shut up,” Rose replied, light-hearted but still slightly antagonized. Then, her face went red, and, clearly flustered, she said quickly: “You should know, I’m bi like you. But…I just don’t get it, how were you brave enough to tell Slade? I hid that part of myself from him. I thought he’d—“ she trailed off and shrugged. “I guess I thought he’d reject me.”

Jericho bit his lip. How to explain it? _I guess the difference between coming out as trans from coming out as bi is that you can excuse not telling Slade that you’re bi because, technically, parents don’t need to know about their kids’ love life. But, Slade was going to notice me taking hormones and changing my name, so I had no choice but to tell him I was trans. I didn’t know if he would accept me or not, and I was scared too._

Rose read it and then set her phone down, meeting Jericho’s eyes. “You’re brave, you know that?”

Jericho smiled at her. He wanted to tell her he thought she was brave too, but he didn’t want it to seem like he was just returning the compliment. Instead, he texted, _Thanks, Rose. I think we should make this a weekly thing._

She smiled at the text. “I’m kind of used to replying to your texts out loud now, but I’m going to seriously try to learn sign language. Next time we meet, I’m going to know a ton more.”

_Don’t burn yourself out trying to learn it. I don’t mind texting you while you learn_ , Jericho answered. At this point in his life, he was well-accustomed to a lack of accommodations for his disability, and he definitely didn’t mind making a mild inconvenience for his baby sister. Rose was more than worth it.

Rose got to her feet. She paused like she wanted to say something, seemed to decide that she didn’t know what to say, and embraced Jericho instead. He hugged her back, and when she pulled away he gave her a big grin.

“We’re doing this every week, once a week. And I’m going to text you a lot,” Rose said, almost like an order. Jericho nodded happily. “Also, I want to meet Grant. It’s utter garbage that I haven’t met him yet.”

Jericho pulled out his phone and texted. _Might be a little more difficult, but we’ll find a time. I’m sure he’ll be happy to make time for his little sister._

And if not, Jericho would force him to.

“Alright, good. I can’t wait for that.” Rose grinned again. “Um, I’ll see you around, big brother.” She said, as if she was testing out calling Jericho her big brother, and grinned at the sound of it.

Jericho waved as she headed out the coffee shop. Then, he pulled up his digital calendar and scheduled out the same time next week to meet up with Rose again. He was definitely looking forward to it.


End file.
